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By Anne BarnardThe New York Times • Monday October 8, 2012 6:42 AM

BEIRUT — Rebel fighters and security forces in Syria clashed near the border with Lebanon and
fought over a military barracks in Aleppo yesterday, while Turkish artillery fired into Syria for a
fifth consecutive day in retaliation for cross-border shelling.

Yesterday morning, Syrian forces shelled Tal Abyad, a Syrian border town where rebels recently
seized control, according to anti-government activists. Video images posted online purported to
show women and children fleeing the area.

Around the same time, a Syrian shell landed about 200 yards across the border from Tal Abyad,
near the town of Akcakale in Turkey, the Associated Press reported.

Akcakale is the town where a Syrian mortar shell killed Turkish civilians on Wednesday,
prompting the Turkish government to announce a policy of retaliation for every shell that strays
across the border. Turkish forces fired eight shells into Syria yesterday.

The mounting tensions at the border have raised international concerns that the 18-month-old
internal conflict in Syria could draw in neighboring countries or even the NATO alliance, to which
Turkey belongs.

In Aleppo, the anti-government Tawhid Brigade said its fighters had penetrated the Hanano
military barracks yesterday and were fighting government forces inside the compound.

A spokesman for the rebel unit who uses the pseudonym Abu Mohammed said that in the fight for
the barracks, fighters from his unit were joined by members of Jabhet al-Nusra, an insurgent group
said to have ties to al-Qaida.

Concerns about rebel affiliation with extremist groups have cut both ways in the debate over
whether the United States and other countries should offer more direct support to the
insurgency.

U.S. officials worry that if more powerful arms are given to the rebels, the weapons will fall
into the hands of extremists and be used in terrorist attacks.

But some rebels have warned that by denying them the aid they need to win on their own, the West
will force the rebels to ally with extremists.

Activists reported fierce shelling near the Aleppo citadel, which dates to the 12th century.
They said about 20 shells fell on the al-Sakur neighborhood in a few minutes.